Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, diced
• 4 ounces green peas
• 4 ounces diced carrot
• 4 cups cooked jasmine rice, chilled
• 2 small fresh lotus leaves (see Cook's Note)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 12 lotus seeds, cooked and popped (rubbery shell removed)
• 1 lotus flower for garnish, optional
• Water for steaming
• Soy sauce and sliced red chile

Instructions

1. Bring a fry pan or wok to high heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the vegetables for 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.
2. In the same pan, add the remaining oil then stir-fry the rice for 3 minutes, remove and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, lay one lotus leaf inside the bowl, followed by the second lotus leaf, putting the rough side of the leaf face-down first.
4. Arrange the stir-fried vegetables on top of the lotus leaf in a pattern, if desired and then, spreading them out evenly towards the middle of the leaf.
5. Scoop the fried rice into the bowl on top of the arranged vegetables. Fold the edge of the first or inner lotus leaf first, pressing to enclose the rice, then fold the edges of the second or outer leaf, pressing down firmly until flat.
6. Bring a steamer full of water to the bowl, and steam the lotus rice in its bowl on high heat for 5 minutes.
7. Remove the bowl from the steamer and turn the lotus rice upside down onto a serving plate.
8. With a sharp knife, carefully make 2 long cuts on the first layer of lotus leaf from corner to corner, criss-crossing each other, and then fold the 4 sections back. Repeat this process with the other bottom lotus leaf.
9. You should be left with 8 triangular sections to the leaf folded back, exposing the rice.
10. Garnish with lotus flower and serve with soy sauce and chile dipping sauce.